Chapter 729 - Before and After 2 (1/2)

Du Du Du Du!

The same was the case of the 1st Continental allied squad, which would reach Nemesis in a day, but had to see the massive pillar of fire with earthquakes.

Marquis Rogers, the Chief Commander, out of intuition ordered the entire army to advance.

And about two hours later, standing on the hillside path overlooking Nemesis, he saw something remarkable.

He was the huge Imperial Palace, which had reigned as the heart of the Baroque Empire for the past 500 years, gone without a trace.

“What happened?! What the hell happened in there…?”

He couldn’t even understand what had happened. He was speechless.

At the same time, they had to find out the whereabouts of Luke as well as rescue the people of Nemesis.

The huge pillar of fire that soared high in the sky suddenly disappeared, but there was still black smoke all over the city.

“We will enter Nemesis right away!”

“But, Sire, I heard that there are a lot of Imperial troops in action.”

“If they block us, wipe them out! Ask the troops to get ready…”

It was when Rogers was about to give orders to his unit, a messenger ran in from the left side.

“Your Majesty has returned!”

“What?!”

“It was said that he used an ancient underground passage connected to the temple, but he seems to have escaped with a lot of people.”

Upon hearing the messengers report, Rogers ran over to the place where Luke was.

There he was, Luke, with soot all over his clothes and face.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like he was hurt.

“Your Majesty, are you alright?”

“I am fine. Rather, we need to enter the Nemesis again.”

“Well, I was about to give them that very order. But what even happened there?”

At Rogers’s question, Luke explained in detail what had happened at the Imperial Palace.

He explained in detail how he caused confusion in Nemesis to lure away the Imperial forces and then attacked the Imperial palace, the fight in the ruins, and eventually, killing off Rudolf as he triggered the self-destruction magic circles, which was installed in the Imperial Palace right before his death.

“Hu! Then the Imperial Palace is done, and that huge fire tornado was because of Rudolf?”

“Yes, he chose to burn down the Imperial Palace rather than to leave it behind. The flames are still alive in the capital.”

The largest fire was destroyed by Luke.

However, the huge fire tornado had spread all throughout Nemesis and was still tormenting people who couldn’t evacuate in time.

“What are those stupid Imperial army troops even doing when they have such things to deal with?!”

“That…!”

At Rogers’s frustration, Luke threw away his soot-covered armor and said, “Well, it isn’t something so tough to understand. The Imperial Palace burned down. The contact with the Emperor got cut off and the mercenaries who were forced into the army are raging and robbing the shops to find money, so the command of the Imperial Army has gone out of hand.”

Nevertheless, Luke felt that the Imperial troops had to uphold their duties and extinguish the fire.

The only reason an army existed was to protect the people.

However, there didn’t seem to be any such concept in the Baroque Imperial army, which had always lived as the Emperor’s dogs.

Not liking the explanation from Luke, Rogers frowned.

“We need to capture Nemesis right away.”

“Yes, not for our victory, but for the sake of the people of Nemesis. So go ahead and put down the fire.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

Rogers, commanded by Luke, ordered the entire army to change their tactics.

In Nemesis, hundreds of Gigants were gathered from all over the place, and more than 100,000 Imperial troops were gathered.

However, none of the Imperial troops responded like the 1st Continental Allied squad.

Just as Luke had predicted, the Baroque Imperial troops were completely aloof.

The fire and turmoil was the problem, but the final blow of something resulted in the entire Imperial Palace getting blown off.

“Marquis! Please give out the orders!”

At the urge of his lieutenant, Marquis Maghreb, the commander of the Imperial Army, asked with a somber expression.

“Your Majesty? Has anyone found His Majesty, the emperor, yet?”

At Maghreb’s question, the lieutenant as well as the other commanders sighed. It wasn’t a situation where they had to look for the emperor.

“Sire, the enemy is right in front of Nemesis. If we don’t respond quickly…”

Bang!

Marquis Maghreb struck his fists on the table and yelled at the lieutenant.

“Shut up and answer my question first! The response to the enemy is the next thing!”

Was he feeling lost?

The lieutenant was speechless for a moment, but he reported after sighing.

“We did find some survivors beneath the palace, but no one seems to have spotted His Majesty.”

“Ugh! Damn it…!”

All of a sudden, the Imperial Palace was blown away by huge flames, and Maghreb along with the other military heads tried everything to search for Rudolf.

In fact, there were even reports of a group of people invading the Imperial Palace at the time when a monster appeared in the capital.

They thought that it was the enemy’s unit, but they all believed that the Emperor’s SS Knights would be able to deal with them.

It was because they knew that Rudolf and his SS Knights were the most powerful.

However, the situation at hand seemed a lot worse. A request for assistance flew in from the palace, and Marquis Maghreb was preparing a unit to be sent over to protect the palace.

However, before the reinforcements even reached the Imperial Palace, a sudden earthquake struck the palace with a huge explosion.

The entire Imperial Palace was devastated.

In addition, a huge pillar of fire soared high, taking away not just the Imperial Palace but also the places in its vicinity.

Why did the Imperial Palace, which was supposed to have handled the situation well, get blown away?

Did the invading enemy troops do something nasty, or did a natural disaster strike it?

‘It doesn’t matter if the Imperial Palace is smashed or the entire capital is turned into ashes. What matters is His Majesty’s safety…’

If Rudolf died, the Baroque Empire would no longer exist.

Rudolf’s brutal power and his strict ruling was the only reason that the empire was able to sustain itself even with rebellions breaking out all through the nation.